Transcript Kohlberg`s Theory of Moral Development

Lecture
Loptson:
 “To affirm that blacks tend to be better basketball players than nonblacks, and that this is not primarily a matter of socialization or
culture, is not racist. It is not racist in part because it is true” (p. 155)
 Teo: It may not be racist. It may be true - it may be untrue.
 The logical problem
 Distributions of “races”
 Mixed race
 Americacentrism
 Subculture
Kohlberg’s Theory of Moral Development
 Lawrence Kohlberg stressed that moral development is based
primarily on moral reasoning and unfolds in stages.
 Cognitive-developmental theory: longitudinal research studied
children (American boys) from age 10/13/16 over 20 years.
 Kohlberg used a unique interview in which participants are
presented with a series of stories in which characters face moral
dilemmas.
Heinz Dilemma
 In Europe, a woman was near death from a special kind of cancer. There
was one drug that the doctors thought might save her. It was a form of
radium that a druggist in the same town had recently discovered. The drug
was expensive to make, but the druggist was charging ten times what the
drug cost him to make. He paid $400 for the radium and charged $4,000 for
a small dose of the drug. The sick woman's husband, Heinz, went to
everyone he knew to borrow the money and tried every legal means, but he
could only get together about $2,000, which is half of what it cost. He told
the druggist that his wife was dying, and asked him to sell it cheaper or let
him pay later. But the druggist said, "No, I discovered the drug and I'm
going to make money from it." So, having tried every legal means, Heinz
gets desperate and considers breaking into the man's store to steal the
drug for his wife.
 Should Heinz steal the drug? Why or why not?
Judy Dilemma
 Judy was a twelve-year-old girl. Her mother promised her that she could go to a
special rock concert coming to their town if she saved up from baby-sitting and lunch
money to buy a ticket to the concert. She managed to save up the fifteen dollars the
ticket cost plus another five dollars. But then her mother changed her mind and told
Judy that she had to spend the money on new clothes for school. Judy was
disappointed and decided to go to the concert anyway. She bought a ticket and told
her mother that she had only been able to save five dollars. That Saturday she went
to the performance and told her mother that she was spending the day with a friend.
A week passed without her mother finding out. Judy then told her older sister, Louise,
that she had gone to the performance and had lied to her mother about it. Louise
wonders whether to tell their mother what Judy did.
 Should Louise, the older sister, tell their mother that Judy lied about the money or
should she keep quiet?
Why or why not?
Kohlberg: A Piagetian
 Kohlberg was actually less interested in the subject's decision (that is, what
Heinz should have done) than in the underlying rationale, or "thought
structures," that the subject used to justify his decision.
 Moral growth progresses through an invariant sequence.
 Kohlberg argued that each stage derives form the previous stage,
incorporates and transforms that stage, and prepares for the next change.
 Kohlberg believed that moral stages are universal.
Kohlberg’s Levels of Moral Development
 Level 1: Preconventional Level
 Stage 1: Heteronomous Morality
 Stage 2: Individualism, Purpose, and Exchange
 Level 2: Conventional Level
 Stage 3: Mutual Interpersonal Expectations,
Relationships, and Interpersonal Conformity
 Stage 4: Social System Morality
 Level 3: Postconventional Level
 Stage 5: Social Contract or Utility and Individual Rights
 Stage 6: Universal Ethical Principles
Results
 Moral reasoning developed very gradually, with use of preconventional
reasoning (Stages 1 and 2) declining sharply in adolescence--the same
period in which conventional reasoning (Stages 3 and 4) is on the rise.
 Conventional reasoning remained the dominant form of moral expression in
young adulthood with very few subjects ever moving beyond it to
postconventional morality (Stage 5).
 Stage 3 or 4 is the end of the developmental journey for most individuals
worldwide.
Moral Thought and Moral Behavior
 Kohlberg’s theory has been criticized for placing too much emphasis on
moral thought and not enough emphasis on moral behavior.
 Moral reasons can sometimes be a shelter for immoral behavior.
 Cheaters and thieves may know what is right yet still do what is wrong.
Culture and Moral Development
 Kohlberg’s theory has been criticized for being culturally biased.
 Moral reasoning is more culture-specific than Kohlberg envisioned.
 Many psychological studies of adolescence have emerged in the
context of Western industrialized society, with the practical needs and
social norms of this culture dominating thinking about all adolescents.
Gender and the Care Perspective
 Kohlberg’s theory is a justice perspective that focuses on the rights of the
individual; individuals stand alone and independently make moral
decisions.
 The care perspective is a moral perspective that views people in terms of
their connectedness with others and emphasizes interpersonal
communication, relationships with others, and concern for others.
Gender and the Care Perspective (con’t)
 Carol Gilligan believed Kohlberg greatly under-played the care
perspective in moral development, due to being male, using males
for his research, and basing his theory on male responses.
 Gilligan’s research found that girls interpret moral dilemmas in
terms of human relationships.
 Other research has found that the gender differences in moral
reasoning are not existent.